The Exploration Of Marxist Dialectical History Determinism

This thesis will discuss the evolution of the historical determinism come up by Marx and Engels. In summary, the historical determinism is the theories about the inevitability and regularity of social history. As one of the longest-running issues in the history of philosophy, Determinism is the question that every philosopher must answer when they philosophize. According to the different viewpoints on the determinism, they are divided into two parts: determinism and non-determinism. Determinists believe that the movement, change and development of things have their inevitable regularity. Things have the necessary links on causality; But the non-determinists regard that there is no regular pattern about the movement, change and development of things. The argument on the determinism and non-determinism is one of the longest-running arguments in the history of philosophy. And it is still going on, here we would not interpret it so much.Reflected in the field of social history, the determinism is reflected in the form of historical determinism. And the historical determinism believes that there are inevitable rule in the field of social history. According to people's understanding of human society, the historical determinism has the different formations in various historical stages. For example, the German classical philosophy is divided into three stages: first, the rationalistic historical determinism is represented by Fichte, Kant and Hegel; second, the humanistic historical determinism is represented by Feuerbach; and the last one is the Marxist dialectical materialism. It is also the key point of this thesis. The reason why we say the Marxist historical determinism is dialectical is that Marx admits the objective laws of human society and it points out that the history of human society is the physical material history of production. Besides, it is the developmental process of both relations of production and the social formation from primary to senior stage which caused and determined by the productivity. This developmental process is a regular process which is similar to the process of the nature history. But Marxism is not historical fatalism; other reasons that the Marxist historical determinism is dialectical rest with the following aspects: It points out that the development of the social is not a simple and one-dimensional, but complicated and multiple; It admits that development of the social is realized through the people's conscious objectcal activities; It admits the retroaction of the social conscious; It admits the superstructure has the comparative independency and has the huge retroaction to economic base; It admits the distinguished historical personages have a vital role in the specific social history process. The dialectical materialism and historical materialism historical determinism originated by Marx not only surmount the limitations of mentalistic historical determinism and mechanical historical determinism, and draw the line with them, but also reveal the error of the non-determinism and draw the line with it. Under conditions of nowadays history development, insisting on and publicizing Marxist historical determinism is significative for our society and our value orientation. This thesis is divided into four parts:The first part introduces what are determinism and the Cadillac logo of the deterministic thoughts systematically. Besides, it also introduce previous Marxist historical determinism resumptively and the stricture to it from the western philosophical non-determinism. The determinism includes two essential factors: One is the necessity and the causality of the things'development; the other one is irreversibility of the historical phenomenon. While the determinism and non-determinism arguing, there is also the argument inside the determinism on materialism and idealism. As a result, the historical process of the determinism can be regarded as the process of argument about materialism determinism and idealism determinism. From classical times to nowadays, the development of the determinism can be divided into three stages: The first one is the opposition of materialism determinism and idealism determinism in classical times; The second one is the opposition of mechanical materialism and idealism determinism in modern times; The last one is the opposition of materialism determinism and idealism determinism in the contemporary age. At the time of the determinism and non-determinism arguing, the contemporary western philosophy emerges a ideological trends about historical non-determinism which has a growing influence, gives a challenge to the historical determinism. Especially k.r.popper, he criticizes Marxist dialectical historical determinism in his book"the open society and its enemies", and then he comes out swinging to Marxist dialectical historical determinism in his another book"the poverty of the historical determinism".The second part explores the historical evolution of early Marxist historical determinism. Marxist historical determinism does not exist at the beginning time, it is also developing gradually. The Marxist historical determinism coming into being undergoes two critical changes: The first one is the change from Hegel --the rationalistic historical determinism to Feuerbach--the humanistic historical determinism; The second change is Feuerbach--the humanistic historical determinism to dialectical materialism historical determinism.The third part explores the thought of Marxist historical determinism deeply. The key reason that why Marxist historical determinism is dialectical is that he takes the materialproductional practical activity as the breakthrough point of researching social history. It points out that the mode of producing that people product physical material decides people's lifestyles, and then decides people's thoughts and concepts. And the people's modes of producing, lifestyles and modes of thinking interact and influence each other. Besides, it also points out that the change and developments of human society have roots in the radical discrepancy of the mode of producing and the basic contradiction of society. The productivity decides the relations of production; The basis of economy decides the superstructure; The social being decides the social consciousness, but they also interact each other. It points out that the productivity is the radically driving force of the development of society. The class struggle and social revolution are the directly driving force of the development of the class society. But the causal connections of social history are the complicated and multiple causal connections. All kinds of social forces, even everybody gives play to the course of history. Among them, the masses of the people are the subject and radically driving force of making history. The other forces play a part in it peripherally and according to their various needs of benefits. But what affects the process of history is the result of all kinds of history subjects and multiple practice of history work together. The inevitability and regularity of the historical development can only represent through the occasional of a great quantity of historical phenomenon and the diversity and intricacy of the way that history develops. Marxist historical determinism is not only the thought of Marx's historical determinism. After then, Friedrich Engels made the additional remarks and came up with the famous theory:"the resultant force of history".The last part is explores the theoretical value and practical significance of Marxist historical determinism. Its theoretical value is that it subverts theological historical determinism, the rationalistic historical determinism and the humanistic historical determinism's dominance radically in social history area. It exceeded the opposition of the old materialism determinism and idealism determinism, and realized the great change in the history of philosophy. Nowadays, the purpose that we explore Marxist historical determinism is not only bringing the social attention, let people know the essence and objective laws of the social history. The most important is to clear right and wrong about theories, reply the attack from non- Marxist to historical materialism. Insisting on the social historical theory of Marxist, implementing scientific outlook on development, and pushing forward for our socialist construction.